How our blog got its name

Sidney Hillman was a powerful national figure during the Great Depression, a key supporter of the New Deal, and a close ally of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

When the rumor spread that President Roosevelt ordered his party leaders to “clear it with Sidney” before announcing Harry S. Truman as his 1944 running mate, conservative critics turned on the phrase, trumpeting it as proof that the president was under the thumb of “Big Labor.”

Over the years, the phrase lost its sting and became a testament to Hillman's influence.

It's hard to imagine a labor leader wielding that kind clout today, but we like the idea—and we hope Sidney would give thumbs up to our blog.

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Winners & Sinners

Posted by Charles Kaiser on Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sinner: President Barack Obama, who, exactly one month ago, told the guests at a White House cocktail party held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riot that he strongly favored Congressional repeal of the military’s idiotic Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy. This week, Winner Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act that would have banned the Defense Department from spending any money on investigations leading to the expulsion of gay and lesbian service members. The Congressman told Winner Rachel Maddowlast night that he had withdrawn the amendment–at the request of the Obama White House.

Sinners: Every single MSM news organization, including ALL newspapers and ALL wire services, who, as far FCP can determine, have so far completely ignored this appalling decision by the White House (as of 11 AM Thursday morning.) How could something like this happen? Because no one in the MSM is serious about covering gay issues on a timely basis.

The Bottom Line to FCP from Nathaniel Frank , who wrote Unfriendly Fire, the brilliant and definitive book on this subject: “The White House has made a decision to avoid this issue like the plague. There is part of me which understands what they’re doing, in terms of prioritizing health care and the economy. The reason I have limited sympathy for the president is, this is not a hard thing to do. Issuing an executive order or supporting the Hastings amendment would cost much less political capital than some White House aides seem to think, some of whom are still scarred by the Clinton experience. I just think if you do something cleanly and swiftly as commander in chief, you’re not going to get all this blow back.”

Winner: President Barack Obama, for accurately stating that the Cambridge Police Department had acted "stupidly" by arresting a man in his own home after confirming that the man resided there. The police report written by arresting officer James Crowley makes it abundantly clear that Henry Louis Gates had confirmed with a photo ID that he was indeed standing inside his own home at the time that Crowley arrested him. “While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence,” Crowley wrote, “I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me.”

The Bottom Line: Gates obviously did everything he could to provoke Crowley, but a better policeman would have ignored the professor’s taunts and left the premises, instead of arresting him.

Winner : Senior Daily Show Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore, for the best take on this colossal waste of time (segment begins at 5:55 in this clip.)

Sinner: CNN/US president Jon Klein, who ever-so-briefly behaved like a responsible network news executive, when he sent out an e-mail saying that the wholly invented story that Barack Obama has never supplied his Hawaii birth certificate had been completely debunked by CNN’s political researchers (and every other serious reporter in America). CNN’s experts told Klein that “In 2001 - the state of Hawaii Health Department went paperless. Paper documents were discarded. The official record of Obama's birth is now an official ELECTRONIC record. Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Health Department told the Honolulu Star Bulletin, "At that time, all information for births from 1908 (on) was put into electronic files for consistent reporting.”

Klein wrote that this “seems to definitively answer the question. Since [Lou Dobbs’] show's mission is for Lou to be the explainer and enlightener, he should be sure to cite this during your segment tonite. And then it seems this story is dead - because anyone who still is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate beef."

Then Klein immediately contradicted himself in a series of interviews, because a news division president is never allowed to criticize a profit center (like Dobbs) at a modern American television network. Klein told Greg Sargentthat Lou runs “his own show” that merely hosts “panels” with birther theorists and asserted that CNN respects viewers enough to let them “make up their own minds.” Klein added that what Dobbs does is “his editorial decision to make.”

The Bottom Line: No, Mr. Klein, it is NOT Mr. Dobbs' decision to make: it is yours, because you are in charge of news standards at CNN, if there are any left. Your statement is identical to what your counterpart at Fox News said after Glenn Beck declared that Obama hates white people (and then said he did not, 75 second later, and then said he did again, the following morning.) Which means that CNN has no standards at all.

For the fastest summary of all of this idiocy, see Winner Jon Stewart’s take from last night, which includes all of the clips of Dobbs for which he should have been fired by, instead of defended by, his boss. Stewart’s Bottom Line: “Any jackass in a suit willing to go on television and criticize the president can make a pretty hefty living....Forgive me, George Bush.”

Update: Over at Media Matters, WinnerJamison Foser, has pointed out that Howie-the-King-of-All-Conflicts-of-Interest-Kurtz has said nothing about the role of Klein, Dobbs or CNN in promoting the phony birther story–but chose to blame Chris Matthews for it instead!! “Think about that,” wrote Foser. “Howard Kurtz, who is a paid employee of CNN, blamed Chris Matthews, who hosts a show for CNN's competitor, for giving the birther nonsense attention. This despite the fact that Matthews has been debunking the theories. And Kurtz didn't say a word about Lou Dobbs, the person who has been pushing this garbage."

UpdateII: Felix Gillette reports the only good news here in The New York Observer: so far, Dobbs' pathetic effort to generate controversy and ratings by promoting the birther debate is an abject failure. Gillette writes that in the two weeks since he started highlighting this non-story, his total viewers have dropped 15%, from 771,000 in the first half of July, to 653,000 in the second half, while those in the ever-sought-after 25-54 demo have plummeted 27%, from 218,00 to 157,000.

Winner: Washington Post reporter Dan Eggen, for a superb dissection of all of the campaign contributions from health care providers to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus.

The Bottom Line, from FCP Contributor Meg Fidler: “Exactly the kind of reporting we the people should be reading routinely–but we’re not.”

Winner: The comedian from the Australian TV show, Chaser’s War on Everything, who invaded chief Bush administration torture-promoter John Yoo’s law class and impersonated a hooded torture victim. When the comedian was thrown out of the room, he said “I’ll go the human rights class down the road. I think you probably won’t be teaching there, professor.” [Special thanks to FCP Contributor Hal Davis.]